Dr. I.O. Azeez

Dr. I.O. Azeez is the Coordinator of the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Programme. He has over seventeen years practical experience as a forestry extension practitioner with thrust in forestry extension and rural sociology. He has served as an assistant lecturer at College of Agriculture, Jalingo, Taraba State between 1994 and 1995. He joined the Departement of Forest resources Management, University of Ibadan as an Assistant Lecturer in 1997 and has risen to the post of a Senior Lecturer. He participated in the “On-Farm Participatory Training in the establishment of Community Woodlots/ Fuel wood Plantations in Selected Communities in Oyo State Nigeria” as well as the Establishment of Community Nurseries to Raise Forest Fruit Trees Planting Stocks in selected Communities of Oyo State in year 2000. Both projects were co- sponsored by the UNDP and Oyo Sate government. He had carried out grant winning studies with other scientist on “Survey of Cross Border Trade in Non Timber Forest Products in the humid lowland of West Africa; and Impact of Charcoal Production on Biodiversity in Selected Countries of West Africa - both were sponsored by Africa Forestry Research Network (AFORNET). Others include “Socio-cultural Determinants of Media Attendance for Local Resources Development Information in Nigeria” and Evaluation of Natural Resources Management Education in West Africa. He teaches both at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Presently, he has over thirty publications, twenty one of which are in peer reviewed journals and the thrust of ten are in the application of indigenous Knowledge to forest conservation and rural development. In addition, he had served in various administrative positions at Departmental and Faculty levels including the Sub-Dean Forestry and Sub-Dean Postgraduate, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry